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Tau'ri
As the homeworld of all humanity in the Galaxy we, the humans of Earth, known variably as the 'Tau'ri' to the Goa'uld, 'Earthers' to the Grandine and indeterminate other names by the rest of the Galaxy are the largest human culture in the Galaxy. Our long isolation from Galactic interference has allowed our population to bloom and our settlement of our home-world Earth is unsurpassed by most Alliance races, bar the Grandine. But to call the Tau'ri one culture is a misnomer, there are (depending on how specifically you assess them) just over a thousand individual cultural variations within the Tau'ri. This has not always served us well, causing many conflicts along ethnic, racial, religious and national lines, but as we as the Tau'ri begin to assert ourselves as a Galactic power, this variability and adaptable nature marks us our among the human and non-human cultures in the Galaxy to steal a phrase from a popular science fiction show, Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations, has given Tau'ri culture the robustness to survive and adapt to all manner of changes. Since the invasion of Earth in 2014 the secrecy surrounding the existence of extraterrestrial life has been lifted and, after the old institutions of international affairs were proven incapable of adjusting to the new realities of Earth's place in Galactic affairs, the United Nations of Earth (UNE) was formed to provide Federal Governance to the globe and leadership on the Galactic stage. Population centres The bulk of the human population on Earth still lives in urban environments, the cities of Earth are huge sprawling masses each very different in character from each-other. Listing them here would be a pointless exercise in geography. There are however some important locations on Earth that are worth taking note of; New Mombasa 'in Kenya, is a semi-autonomous city seceded to the use of the UNE Assembly, the central governmental body of the UNE. The New Mombasa project was originally a joint British-Kenyan operation to house an 'Ancient Terraforming Device used by the SEF to help Earth secretly recover from the effects of an artificial solar flare in 2004. Which has developed into a massive reconstruction project of the old city of Mombasa. Though the UNE itself is decentralised its myriad arms located in multiple cities around the globe as not to create the idea of favouring any single nation, New Mombasa serves as the closest thing it has to a capitol. The symbolic nature of choosing a non-Western nation and not a major nation to play host to the UNE was a calculated political choice part, though largely its functions are currently scattered as many of the facilities scheduled to be constructed in New Mombasa are still under construction and behind schedule. London in the United Kingdom still plays a powerful role in the UNE, the British Government commands a lot of power due to it's control of Earth's sole Stargate program. However the UNE has repeatedly questioned the right of Britain to control the Gate, and the government is acutely aware that its grasp on the assets of the SEF is temporal at best, and a time might come when the rest of the UNE makes a move to move those assets under UNE Federal control. Corsham in the United Kingdom is not well-known to even the British population, a historic market town transformed into a hidden administrative and manufacturing base by the British Ministry of Defence during the Second World War and Cold War, Corsham's extensive subterranean military complex was taken over by the SEF at its formation when the Hob's Gate was relocated from its old facilities at Bletchley Park. Despite its obscurity this makes Corsham one of the most vital strategic locations on the planet Earth. The United Nations of Earth It would be a lie to believe that the United Nations of Earth has actually ''resulted in unity of the planet. Though it represents a powerful global federal government to which most of Earth's nations belong there are member-states that view the organisation as still being dominated by Western Governments having been led in its creation by the then British Prime Minister Dr Thomas Lanfear. Though all states have joined to share in access to the prosperity of the Tau'ri's place in Galactic affairs, there are still those within it that resist increased growth of the powers of the UNE's Central Assembly and the UNE Executive. The UNE is still in its infancy, and though the Aethernaut-Dagon Invasion of Earth served to provide the Nations of Earth with the incentive to seek unity there is no guarantee that, with the threat of invasion fading, any setback or international controversy could cause the UNE to begin to fragment. There are many incentives for nations to join the UNE. Membership guarantees access to advanced clean energy technology, access to the UNE trade fleet, representation at the table when dealing with the Alliance and orbital defense against long range missile attack and extraterrestrial invasion. However Nations must be Democracies to join or promise to provide free elections within a one year timeframe, and must provide 2.5% of their GDP towards the UNE budget. Though the enforcement of free elections has been a difficult one, though China has joined for example, and permitted free elections the years of dominance under the Chinese Communist Party mean that it still largely controls the country despite some liberal gains. Most Nations belong to the UNE however countries currently have not joined, or been denied entry on the grounds of the UNE High Commissioner for Electoral Reform ruling them as failing to observe a commitment to free and open elections. '''The UNE Executive' is the primary body of the UNE, led by the UNE President the Executive consists of a combination of: * The Office of the UNE President '''is the central coordinating body for the UNE Executive, it aids the President in their role of coordinating the UNE Cabinet combined of the heads of the Executive's other Offices, as well as appointing the heads of those Offices and advising and briefing the President on affairs that effect his position. * '''The UNE Office for Trade (UNEOT) '''is the continuation of the Offworld Trade routes first established by Thomas Lanfear coordinating the movement of the UNE's Merchant Class starships and the '''UNE Merchant Navy, '''as well as serving as the register for all commercial space craft operating from earth. It's duty is to coordinate the Tau'ri's commercial exploitation of space as well as advising the General Assembly on the appropriate legislation of space given the numerous private and commercial interests interested in entering the Galactic economy and trading with the Alliance. * '''The UNE Office for Planetary Defence (UNEOPD) '''is responsible for coordinating the movements and shipbuilding operations of the '''UNE Fleet '''and the UNE Federal Security Agency '''TRIBUNE (Task-force for Reconnaissance and Intelligence on Behalf of the United Nations of Earth) which formed in the aftermath of the emergence of extraterrestrial criminal bodies on Earth to coordinate international security efforts against off-world infiltration as well as internal threats. * The UNE Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNEOCHA) '''includes both the '''UNE High Commissioner for Refugees (UNEHCR), UNE Office for Disaster Response and the UNE High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNEHCHR). UNEOCHA '''is one of the busiest divisions of the UNE especially in the Developing World where many nations are still struggling to recover from the damage incurred during the invasion of Earth - the UNHCR was formed largely to coordinate the fair resettlement of refugees from China, Nicaragua and Iran which were all rendered largely uninhabitable by Aethernaut bombardment, as well as displaced individuals from the tsunami that hit Newfoundland, Greenland and Iceland and the western coast of Ireland. * '''The UNE High Commissioner for the Environment (UNEHCE) '''has an important role in the coordination of the UNE's efforts to curtail the environmental damage done by both humanity and the effects of extraterrestial interference, it has custodial control of the Ancient Terraforming Device sited at New Mombassa as well as access to technologies provided by member states. It is still a massive project and years of environmental neglect will not be healed overnight. The UNE President is a largely ceremonial role, however, serving more as a spokesperson for the UNE and Earth rather than as 'The President of Earth' largely due to disagreements about the makeup of the Executive between the member states. The President is not elected by the UNE but rather the United Nations of Earth Council (UNEC) consisting of the Heads of State of all the member-nations of the UNE thus largely represents a compromise between those nations. '''The UNE General Assembly is the primary body of the UNE legislature supported by numerous sub-committees with individual responsibilities, though it works closely with the Executive it is a separate and distinct body which elects its own Speaker of the Assembly to chair debate from among the members of the Assembly. The Assembly consists of representatives of each nation, in the interest of equality, each member nation of the UNE is afforded a single seat which is filled by a representative Assembly Member chosen by the Government of the Nation. This is an ambassadorial post within most Governments though some states have experimented with democratic elections for these roles where internal political divisions did not find a candidate all factions could agree on. The Assembly is by no means a united body, political blocs have already rapidly formed within its ranks as nations argue over the best course for the UNE. There are many who would want the UNE to be more than what it is now including Britain, France and most of Europe and they fall into the Democratic Union '''political grouping that largely support further expansion of the UNE's remit. Whereas the the '''Identity and Independence '''political group is largely comprised of former authoritarian and single-party states led by China who are opposed to further imposition of the UNE on the running of their nations. It is important to remember that for many states the decision to join the UNE was considered a form of blackmail led by the powerful Western states that formed it, with the UNE effectively controlling off-world trade with the wider galaxy joining was a choice between sharing that wealth or destitution. For many socialist states the UNE is deeply problematicas as a largely capitalist trade organisation and the task of keeping the UNE united through its infancy will have its challenges, the UNE is more than aware that if the blocs of nations within it that are opposed to its expansion forge trade links with sympathetic galactic powers, then there is a very real danger of Earth fragmenting into several powerful political Super-State Blocs rather than retaining unity. The UNE has had to bend to survive, especially towards the Chinese government who have previously attempted to trade with the Syndicate and who previously constructed a warship (the Sun Tzu) currently impounded by the UNE as a 'threat to security' and received command of the ''Mao Tse-tung ''as part of reparations to convince them to join the UNE despite their hostility. It is worth noting that many governments do not view the actions of the SEF or the SGC before it as having a positive impact on the world, there are many who are suspicious as to if the Dagon-Aethernaut Invasion of Earth would have happened if it were not for the actions of the SEF and SGC in making extraterrestrial forces consider Earth a threat. '''Details of Major Players in the UNE can be found here Federal National Governments All 194 nations on Earth possess their own form of Government. Thanks to UNE membership enforcing it a number of previously single-party or authoritarian states have slowly begun to creep towards a transition to local models of democracy but not all of them, the majority of States have changed little. There are however some important Governments to take note of in the world. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland '''may not be the richest, or largest, state in the world, but thanks to its responsibility for control of Earth's (currently) only Stargate and the fame of the SEF Britain holds an important place in global politics and the UNE. There are some that question its right to control such power given its dubious colonial past, but for now the UK continues to be a major player in the world, with its economy bolstered by a number of semi-state companies such as Legion, which produces smartphones and tablets based on SEF-subsidiary Crystal PDA technology as well as numerous treasure finds by SEF forces. The SEF has strong connections to the British establishment with former members including former Prime Minister Thomas Lanfear and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex which have ensured its survival through multiple governments despite the immense costs of the program. The '''United States of America '''while no longer operating the United States Stargate Command remains a major superpower, and the largest contributor of warships and crews to the UNE Fleet. Despite the transfer of its Stargate to SEF storage the US still exerts an amount of influence with Britain allowing it to remain a major player in off-world affairs the US secret military facility at '''Area 51 remains one of the best research institutions of extraterrestrial artifacts and technology outside of the SEF Research Division. The Russian Federation has been through significant change, after Vladimir Putin was assassinated by the Syndicate who decided his authoritarian conservative regime was not suiting to their attempts to establish a permanent influence over the nation. In the years following combined FSB-SIS effort to liberate Russia from Syndicate influence and the agreement signed between Colm and the SEF on the Syndicates behalf agreeing to withdraw their forces from Earth the Russian Federation has made significant democratic shifts towards a more liberal government but remains somewhat fractured given its vastness and a potential haven for extraterrestrial influences. The Peoples Republic of China is one of the major antagonistic forces left on Earth, though it has been successfully persuaded to join the UNE and offer 'free' elections as part of that, it remains a state largely under the thumb of the Chinese Communist Party. This is largely thanks to the SEF and US Space Fleets engaging in a nuclear-weapon engagement with Aethernaut vessels over China during the Invasion of Earth, vast areas of irradiated Chinese countryside have forced the Chinese people to work together to survive in a changed world. They are driven and motivated to repair the damage done by 'the West' to their nation, and that makes them the most likely faction to fragment from the UNE and form its own grouping of like-minded states. All in all, the world has not changed as drastically as people would have hoped, there is still violence in the Middle East, with Sunni/Shia violence only being exacerbated by the destruction of Iran by Aethernaut forces, as the loss of one of the major nations and defenders of the Shia sect of Islam has put the Shia minority in a dangerous position, the decision of Iraq to become one of the primary founding members of the UNE was largely motivated by the fear of aggression from neighboring Sunni states. Problems this long-standing and historical including the continuing debates over the rights to statehood for the Palestinian people remain outstanding questions for the UNE to answer, even if they aren't the immediate concern of SEF members. Details of Major Players on Earth can be found here Security Issues In addition to national-level skeptics about the new 'unity' of Earth there are several global security issues that continue to haunt the Tau'ri, it would nice to think that in the face of the revelation of extraterrestrial life the problems and internal divisions of the Tau'ri would have gone away, but such things do not fade overnight, and continue to plague the people of Earth. Terrorism continues to be a major issue, with new faces stepping onto the world stage, though the threat of terrorist conflict spilling out of conflict in the Middle East continues to be a danger, it is no longer (if it ever was despite media attention towards it) the primary threat to international security. Nationalist Terrorism tends to be a more significant security threat, especially in nations that have seen long-standing authoritarian governments uprooted by the emergence of the UNE and enforced democracy. Perhaps the most extreme manifestation of this is in the Earth First movement, an isolationist terrorist network that links Nationalist terrorists who oppose the UNE with those who seek for Earth to cut ties with the Alliance and retreat from the galactic stage to 'protect it from aliens'. Extremely xenophobic the group has attacked extraterrestrial visitors as well as individuals involved in the UNE or any of Earth's space-based programs. There are several Failed States that continue to be weak points in the Earth's security, the UNE works closely to continue work in regions such as Somalia, to stabilize local security as in several cases exploitative and hostile extraterrestrial forces have exploited them to gain a foothold on Earth. There are also continued concerns about Rogue Agencies and International Criminals with extraterrestrial links, for example rogue elements of the US National Intelligence Department (NID) previously operated a semi-criminal enterprise using a stolen Stargate and several alien technologies, remnants of this operation have been encountered which have led to concerns that such renegade elements continue to exist. Beliefs Nearly 75% of the Tau'ri practice some form of organised religion, the majority of these have existed for hundreds, even thousands of years and trying to list them all and their beliefs would offer very little value to this database. What is notable is that most of these religions have rapidly adapted to the reality of life outside of Earth, though some religions based on a theology including of extraterrestrial life proven wrong by humanities exploration of the Galaxy (such as the Church of Scientology) have suffered reductions in their membership. The presence of alien life proven to have emulated ancient deities long-forgotten has led to a resurgence of interest in 'pagan' belief systems as well as a number of emerging religions based on neo-pagan ideals and worship of extraterrestrials, these are quietly monitored as it is known that historically that the Goa'uld Setesh established several similar cults prior to his neutralization by US SGC forces. Economy Earth's economy is in a period of intense growth, the size of Earth's population and its production capacity compared to other planets which are significantly less industrialized than it have enabled it to move onto the galactic stage via its trade links with the Alliance and be a fairly important powerhouse of Alliance trade. The diverse economic output of Earth has led to it being able to provide to the needs of most of the Alliance states as well as forging new trade links with other worlds who lack certain resources. Perhaps the biggest danger to Earth's prosperity is natural resources, over a hundred years of industrialization have depleted these, and if Earth's current output continues to increase to meet the demands of extraterrestrial trade partners its consumption of these resources will only increase, and the risks of depleting them increase. To compensate for this Earth is growing more dependent on trade in resources and looking for ways to exploit other worlds in the Sol System, meaning that if it were to loose access to those resources the economy could begin to topple into free-fall as it would be hard to scale-down production from its current point. There are some companies and corporations of note to the SEF, though the majority of the worlds businesses continue to exist in some form or another; * Legion, as far as the world is concerned, emerged onto the market out of nowhere in the 2010's as a tech company with a new proprietary technology. Part-owned by the SEF and UK Gov via various front companies, Legion was established to generate an alternative revenue streams to provide funding for the SEF while it was operating under a covert budget. Since the SEF's existence as a unit became knowledge it has been easier for the UK Gov to fund it openly, and Legion has been transitioned towards part-state ownership. A major tech company thanks to its access to crystal technologies Legion, under the guidance of Irene Hardy until her untimely death, has become one of the foremost providers of smartphones and tablets, successfully outperforming its primary rivals something that led to the collapse of the Apple corporation's market share. Art and Entertainment The Tau'ri have a lot of different forms of art and entertainment thanks to their immense cultural diversity, most forms of entertainment have crossed over into the modern era. The SEF is not actually lacking in its own contribution to the funding of the arts program in the UK thanks to its donations towards the Ant and Dec Memorial Academy for Arts named after the presenting duo after their death at the hands of a renegade SEF member. There are a few notable new pieces of media of interest to SEF staff due to their relationship with the SEF and the Stargate; * Wormhole X-Treme! is a much beloved Sci-fi series that was initially cancelled after a very short run of episodes, only to be revived based on its DVD sales and went on to run for over two hundred episodes. It tells the story of four US military heroes working for a covert government program who travel to other worlds via devices called Starportals. The result of an extraterrestrial refugee connected with the US SGC, the program was originally considered a security risk but allowed to continue as it provided plausible deniability for Earth's real Stargate programs and remains a cult favorite to this day. * The Clockwork Heart Saga by Davidoff Promise is a series of steampunk novels noted for their 'steamy' erotic scenes, penned by David Creed the Saga contained a number of characters inspired by SEF members serving at the time (to the chagrin of many) it was later adapted into a series of movies, and remains one of the only truly successful mainstream steampunk series. * Stargate Extreme a cartoon series (and accompanying toys) was a creation of the Stargate Experience featuring several expies for serving personnel at the time of its creation. Considered a critical and commercial disaster there are rumors that members of the SEF went to great extent to ensure that the original footage and files were destroyed. Yet persistent rumors exist of files of the series surviving on various illegal download sites on the internet - it is vilified by the strong Wormhole X-Treme! fanbase for being derivative. Military Very few nations among the Tau'ri possess no form of standing military or at least voluntary militia, the combined strength of all the national military's on Earth is considerable, though they are rarely seen deployed at once. The traditional military forces of the Tau'ri are the Airforce, Navy and Army, though some nations operate additional branches such as the US Marine Corps as well as elite Special Operations units. The development of military space capability since the discovery of technologies that have advanced Earth's spacecraft by strides has added spaceforces as a new dimension that Earth's military are adapting to the reality of - though this capacity is currently exclusively controlled by the UNE Fleet with the notable exception of the space assets assigned to the SEF Spaceship Technologies test unit based at Boscombe Down. The UNE Fleet was largely founded from the fleet assets of Britain and the United States combined with deliveries of Alliance-class ships from the Alliance. It s a multinational organisation, its primary language is English but command of the battle-groups fall to French, Chinese and Russian commands as well as British and American meaning a degree of bilingualism is required for effective communication and service. Each of the Fleet Battlegroups is commanded from a Mars-class Battleship which serves as the flagship, the current commands are labeled by colors in a conscious effort to avoid suggesting any are not equal. In addition to the UNE Fleet's Ship Crews, the UNE Marine Corps (UNEMC) 'was formed by selection from the foremost void-rated soldiers from across the military's of the Alliance, a decision that has earned in the affectionate moniker of the 'Rainbow Corps' among certain state militaries. ---- Technology *Spacefaring: The Tau'ri have a growing presence in space. The UNE controls five battle fleets, which mainly patrol around the Sol system, and several key alliance sectors. The growing UNE Trade fleet, comprised mainly of Merchant Class ships is becoming a more common sight throughout Alliance space, but not much beyond it's borders. *Colonisers: Currently the Tau'ri do not have any permanent off-world bases or colonies. There have been attempts to create such bases over the years, but these have often suffered catastrophes, or been destroyed by enemy action. *Explorers: The Tau'ri have a well developed gate exploration program, operated by the SEF for a number of years. ---- History Though the evolutionary emergence of humanity on Earth follows the story laid out in modern science, the ''seed for that evolution was no random act. The Tau'ri are the second evolution of humanity in the universe as far as is understood with the first evolution being the Ancients who arrived in our galaxy in Earth's infancy. How and when humanities evolution was provoked by Ancient meddling is currently unknown but is believed to have resulted in the Tau'ri or Homo sapiens emerging on earth around three hundred and fifteen thousand years ago. The broad strokes of human prehistory can be found here along with the timeline here. '''Recent History The single most significant event in human history occurred in 1996 '''when the US Airforce scientific program based at Area 51 with the aid of an Egyptologist by the name of Dr Daniel Jackson successfully operated the Giza Stargate to establish a wormhole to the planet Abydos, leading to the death of the Goa'uld, Ra. This event began a chain of events that would lead to the creation of the United States Stargate Command (US SGC) and later the predecessor to the SEF the United Kingdom Gate Command (UKGC) and mark the point where human extraterrestrial exploration was accelerated far beyond the technological capabilities of the Tau'ri at the time. Both these operations were hidden from the public eye for most of their existence, operating on black ops budgets to ensure secrecy and security. The actions of both the United States and United Kingdom and their decisions to embroil the Tau'ri in Galactic affairs have had a positive impact not only upon a Galaxy previously under the near-total control of the Goa'uld whose Empire has been in steady decline thanks to Tau'ri actions but on Earth which has evolved thanks to the use of reverse engineered alien technologies. Both programs might have remained hidden from the public were it not for the fateful events of '''2014 The Invasion of Earth Prior to the events of 2014 the Aethernaut people had been allies to the Tau'ri, however the young King who the SEF placed on the throne years prior as he was favorable to the Tau'ri had proven to be a psychotic dictator. After a slight to the Aethernaut's during a visit to Corsham diplomatic relations with the race broke down. What the SEF were unaware of was that, via infiltration by the Fomori, the Aethernauts had been psychically infected by the Great Old One Dagon and in mid-2014 the entire ''Aethernaut fleet appeared over Earth an immense gathering of ships given the race was largely space-based. At the same time an Aurora-class Battleship ''The Carter appeared in Earth's orbit, erecting a shield around the entire planet, but not before several large elements of the Aethernaut fleet were able to pass through it. These vessels were confronted by a fleet of Tau'ri vessels from the United States and United Kingdom in what would become known as the Battle of China '''the following nuclear exchange between the engaging warships as well as the detonation of naquada reactors of dying ships devastated numerous Chinese cities and vast swathes of Chinese countryside, but despite the valiant last stand of the Tau'ri ships blunting the numbers of Aethernaut vessels inside the Carter Shield, a good number survived the battle and spread out across the Earth's surface to attempt to suppress the Tau'ri population. Nuclear strikes against the vessels failed to penetrate their shields and led to the destruction of Iran and Nicaragua (though the missiles had actually been fired from a hidden US facility) as an 'example' to the Tau'ri of resisting the occupying Aethernaut forces. Without significant numbers, Aethernaut forces invaded numerous population centers but largely relied on their superior spacecraft to oppress the Tau'ri. Though the SEF were in the wider galaxy finding the solutions to liberate Earth the Tau'ri people, oblivious to the possibility of salvation from what seemed like an unwinnable situation, still chose resistance over compliance, and adopted what British observers would refer to as a 'Blitz Spirit' as resistance forces sought to overcome the Aethernauts. During nearly twelve months of occupation, fighting with the Aethernauts and subsequent Aethernaut reprisal bombings left most major cities with thousands of dead, and whole swathes of buildings leveled by Aethernaut weapons. Even years on from the liberation of Earth in 2015 many areas of the Earth still bear the scars of occupation, and it is hard to find a Tau'ri who didn't know someone killed in the occupation. The '''Second Battle of Britain began shortly after the arrival of the Sunkiller quantum-entanglement drive powered vessel containing the SEF and Alliance forces from the wide galaxy, these forces landed across Britain in an attempt to liberate a number of vital areas of the country, and other VIPs while the SEF made their way to the newly-emerged extent of the Giant's Causeway where an Ancient weapon that had lain dormant since early history, awaited their activation. In a blast of radiating energy that spread across the globe, the Aethernaut vessels over Earth seemingly disintegrated ending the threat of invasion once and for all. At the height of the battle Dr Thomas Lanfear appeared before the world to assure them that the newly-arrived Alliance troops were their allies, this famous appearance, broadcast around the globe, would be one of the myriad reasons for his rapid rise to Prime Minister. After the Invasion After Earth was liberated, a concerted effort began to rebuild from the damage inflicted during the Invasion. This was assisted by the Alliance. Though the decision was taken to make the SEF public knowledge, the unit and its operations remain classified knowledge, and only those members chosen to make themselves known to the wider public were identified with the majority of the identities of SEF personnel remaining top secret. However in the chaos of the post-invasion Earth the Syndicate, seeing an opportunity for profit given the fragmented nature of Earth's nations , began to establish operations on the planet during this period exploiting several flawed and failed states to slowly take over legitimate and criminal enterprises under the Stormweaver Clan faction. This led to the successful assassination of Vladimir Putin and the takeover of much of the Russian government after the Stormweaver leader Em'me Stormweaver, grew tired of the attitudes of the conservative Russian hierarchy. Thanks to the actions of SIS (MI6) and allied elements of the Russian FSB along with the SEF and sometime-ally Colm the Syndicate operations were heavily curtailed and Em'me Stormweaver arrested, leading to Colm's ascension to her position within the Syndicate and an agreement with the Syndicate to withdraw its interests from Earth. This had consequences, for the Stormweaver Clan had previously entered into an agreement with the Chinese government to construct it a vessel, the Sun Tzu so it would have its own independent space vessel. This vessel was captured by the SEF and taken into custody by the UN. This incident sparked increased tensions with China that boiled over into a confrontation in the South China Sea, this incident, leading to the launch of nuclear weapons, was defused when those weapons were intercepted by technology developed by the United Kingdom for use for the newly-formed UNE. This incident led to the collapse of the United Nations with the UNE rising to take its place. The formation of the UNE in 2017 saw, in addition to the United States and United Kingdom that had founded the project, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Egypt, Iceland, Indonesia, Iraq, Japan, Madagasca, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden and the entire European Union all become joining members of the organisation. With other states joining over the next few years. The Alliance-Sylvalis-Servitor and Alliance-Kuma'ai Wars fortunately did not result in any direct attacks on the scale of the Aethernaut invasion, with the Kuma'ai attempt being curtailed by SEF forces who contained them to the Stargate facility at MOD Coresham. ---- Back to Cultural Database Category:Cultures